Mission accomplished: Travel 1 rose in an emergency propellants extinguished since 2004 before a blackout
Artist drawing of one of the traveling probes spinning at more than 55,000 km/h in space. © NASA/JPL-CALTECH
The famous Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), which takes care of the NASA spacecrafts, has just successfully put in service a set of propellants from the no less famous Voyager 1. These extra propellers, which are part of a set of 16, were nevertheless considered to be definitively out-of-service since 2004.
This feat at the positive outcome was to be accomplished before the antenna of traveling 1 lost contact with the earth and its twin travel 2, part the same year (1977) Explore the borders of the stellar system. An adventure without hope of return.
Travel 1 and 2: aging propellants to the test of interstellar emptiness
The tubes that contain the probe fuel tend to plug, the fault of a progressive fouling. This is why engineers are regularly forced to juggle from one to the other by transmitting their orders to almost 25 billion kilometers away!
A similar operation had already taken place in 2018 and 2019, but towards a propulsive whole which is unable to produce the Roulis movement. However, this is the one that was necessary in recent days to maintain the antenna in the right direction. The roll, well known to aviators and sailors, is a rotary movement of the device along its longitudinal axis.
Illustration of Roulis movement. © Glenn Research Center, NASA
The problem came from internal heat loss in these tubes, which was considered insoluble and prompted engineers to use redundant systems. “I think that at the time, the team believed that the main propellers would no longer work, because they had an excellent rescue solutionsaid Kareem Badaruddin, director of the Mission Voyager at JPL for NASA. And, frankly, they probably did not imagine that the travel vessels would continue for another 20 years. ”
An urgent maneuver to study the deep space further
But the Roulis movement had become necessary for the pursuit of the mission, the antenna of traveling 1 being (voluntarily) incapable of communicating, apart from short periods, until February 2026 due to upgrade. One can therefore imagine that without this preliminary reorientation, the slightest glitch during this period of semi black-out could have been fatal to travel.
“These antenna improvements are important for future crew lunar landings, and they also increase communication capacity for our scientific missions in deep space, some of which rely on the discoveries made by travel”specifies Suzanne Dodd, director of the Voyager and the interplanetary network of the JPL, who manages the NASA Deep Space Network.
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